Torrance Woman Arrested In Mistaken ID Revenge Murder Of NorCal Rapper
SAN MATEO (CBSLA) — A Torrance woman has been arrested in connection with the murder of a Northern California rapper who investigators say she misidentified as the shooter who killed her boyfriend in Seal Beach last August.
Amanda Young, 29, was arrested in Torrance on April 15 on charges of conspiracy and homicide.
According to San Mateo police, Young was the girlfriend of 27-year-old Lewis Reupena, a musician who was shot and killed on Aug. 29 while driving on the 405 Freeway in Seal Beach.
Young did a "street investigation" into the killing, according to police, and incorrectly concluded that San Francisco Bay Area rap artist Melota Lasi — who performed under the name Cutty Banks — was responsible for Reupena's killing.
Lasi was shot and killed on Dec. 19 in the parking lot of a Wells Fargo bank in San Mateo.
Investigators identified Reupena's brother, 34-year-old Isaiah Reupena, as the suspect in that shooting. He was arrested April 1 in Oklahoma.
Detectives allege that Young convinced Isaiah Reupena that Lasi was responsible for his brother's killing. Reupena then drove from Southern California to San Mateo in December, shot and killed Lasi, returned to Southern California and then moved Oklahoma, San Mateo police said.
Young also moved to Oklahoma for a short period of time following Lasi's murder, but returned to Torrance.
Since her arrest, she has been extradited to San Mateo, where she remains jailed.
Lewis Reupena's father told CBSLA back in August his son was driving to work on the night of Aug. 29, when someone pulled out a gun on the freeway and shot and killed him. Authorities still do not have a motive or suspects in his killing.